Uploaded July 2010 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
The concerto is the largest instrumental work I have completed to date. It was commissioned by the Serge Koussevitsky Music Foundation inte Library congress, dedicated to the memory or Serge and Natalie Koussevitsky. Its composition occupied me during the period between 1950 and 1954. The work was done in Berkeley and Princeton, and finished in Rome, January 5, 1954, during my stay at the American Academy while on a Guggenheim Fellowship.
The first movement is characterized by the alternation of two tempi: allegro and andante. The first appearance of the allegro is only two measures long, and furnishes an orchestral upbeat to the first violin solo. Near the end of the passage, a bell-like sound is heard, which appears at other key points throughout the concerto. A brief cadenza ushers in the allegro proper, which begins with an orchestral tutti. The entrance of the violin carries this section toward its climax, whose dissolution is accompanied again by the bell-like motive. The more lyric andante returns, and is then followed y an extensive development, allegro. Tension toward the climax is built by having the figuration of the solo violin imitated by groups of orchestral instruments at closer and closer time intervals. The climax brings the return of the lyric andante, a more elaborate solo cadenza, and a culminating coda in a faster tempo.
Andrew Imbrie
In 1959 Andrew Imbrie was awarded the Walter W. Naumburg Recording Prize for his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. That work was spontaneously acclaimed by the critics at its premiere performance during a festival dedicating the University of California's new music center at Berkeley. In covering the event, Alfred Frankenstein of the San Francisco Chronicle remarked, "It [Imbrie's concerto] impressed me as being the most important composition of its kind since the violin concerto of Alban Berg."
FOR THE SECORD PART OF THIS MOVEMENT, SEARCH ON YouTube FOR:
Andrew Imbrie, Violin Concerto i. Allegro - Part 2 of 2
The other two movements will be forthcoming.
The concerto is the largest instrumental work I have completed to date. It was commissioned by the Serge Koussevitsky Music Foundation inte Library congress, dedicated to the memory or Serge and Natalie Koussevitsky. Its composition occupied me during the period between 1950 and 1954. The work was done in Berkeley and Princeton, and finished in Rome, January 5, 1954, during my stay at the American Academy while on a Guggenheim Fellowship.
The first movement is characterized by the alternation of two tempi: allegro and andante. The first appearance of the allegro is only two measures long, and furnishes an orchestral upbeat to the first violin solo. Near the end of the passage, a bell-like sound is heard, which appears at other key points throughout the concerto. A brief cadenza ushers in the allegro proper, which begins with an orchestral tutti. The entrance of the violin carries this section toward its climax, whose dissolution is accompanied again by the bell-like motive. The more lyric andante returns, and is then followed y an extensive development, allegro. Tension toward the climax is built by having the figuration of the solo violin imitated by groups of orchestral instruments at closer and closer time intervals. The climax brings the return of the lyric andante, a more elaborate solo cadenza, and a culminating coda in a faster tempo.
Andrew Imbrie
In 1959 Andrew Imbrie was awarded the Walter W. Naumburg Recording Prize for his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. That work was spontaneously acclaimed by the critics at its premiere performance during a festival dedicating the University of California's new music center at Berkeley. In covering the event, Alfred Frankenstein of the San Francisco Chronicle remarked, "It [Imbrie's concerto] impressed me as being the most important composition of its kind since the violin concerto of Alban Berg."
FOR THE SECORD PART OF THIS MOVEMENT, SEARCH ON YouTube FOR:
Andrew Imbrie, Violin Concerto i. Allegro - Part 2 of 2
The other two movements will be forthcoming.
![Randolph Pitts, Sonata for Cello & Piano [2/3]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rJ97n5aUMQw/mqdefault.jpg "Randolph Pitts, Sonata for Cello & Piano [2/3]
The Sonata for Cello & Piano was composed in 2010 and was dedicated to the composers fiancée. The work is in one movement. This is the second of three parts.")
